Robert Mueller: NSA plan derails terrorism

FBI Director Robert Mueller defended the amassing of widespread phone records, before a House Committee, saying had it been in place before the Sept. 11 attacks, the attacks could have been “derailed” and that it was used to track a friend of the Boston Marathon bombers.

Monitoring calls between a Yemen safe house and an organizer in San Diego, “could have derailed the plan, in any case, the opportunity was not there,” Mueller told the House Judicary Committee. “If we had this program that opportunity would have been there.”

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He said the phone program was also used to track Ibragim Todashev, who was shot by agents while being interrogated, saying he was found through means “including one of the programs that is under scrutiny today.”

“We came upon him in a variety of ways,” Mueller said.

Mueller also addressed criticism that the program doesn’t recognize civil liberties.

“We recognize that the American public expects the FBI and our intelligence community partners to respect privacy,” Mueller said. “The programs have been carried out with extensive oversight from courts, independent inspectors general and Congress.”

Mueller also insisted that the leaks about the program have made it easier for terrorists to circumvent investigators.

“This hurts national security,” Mueller said. “We’re going to lose our ability to get their communications. We’re going to be exceptionally vulnerable.”

Mueller said terrorists are paying “very,very, very” close attention to news about their programs.

“All I can say, is that there is a cost to be paid,” he said.

Mueller said he could provide little details about the ongoing investigation into Edward Snowden, the contractor who leaked the information to the press. Snowden is being investigated, Mueller said.

The topics at the previously-scheduled Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday morning, Mueller was called on to explain surveillance programs that collected billions of domestic phone records, the investigation into the attack at the Benghazi consulate, the Boston Marathon bombing, drones and the Guantanamo detention facility.

“I know there is little you may be able to say about these programs in a public hearing,” Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said. “But I and other members of the committee believe it is important for you to explain, to the extent you are able, why you believe these programs are a necessary part of America’s counter-terrorism operation.”

The hearing comes in the middle of on-going debate in Congress about how to respond to revelations brought to light by a leaker last week that the NSA is amassing phone records from domestic calls.

Mueller only has a few months remaining in his term. President Barack Obama last month appointed James Comey to take over the agency. Mueller has been the head of the agency for the past 12 years.

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, expressed concern about the monitoring of phone and Internet records.

“It is my fear we are on the verge of becoming a surveillance state, collecting records on law abiding citizens every day,” Conyers said. “A free society can only be free if it has the informed consent of its citizens.”

Conyers has been out front of other Democrats in criticizing the program and the administration.

He announced that he and Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) will file a bill Friday to address the surveillance program. Amash, one of the most conservative members of the House Republican caucus, has been vocal in his criticism of the program.